The effective removal of Pb by activated carbon fibers modified by l-cysteine: exploration of kinetics, thermodynamics and mechanism.

Herein, we developed a low-cost fabrication route to prepare chemically grafted activated carbon fibers, which effectively removed Pb from solution. Multiple characteristic results indicated that l-cyst-ACF had abundant nitrogen-containing and sulfur-containing functional groups. Based on the XPS and EDS analyses, the capture of Pb was attributed to the abundant adsorption sites on the fiber surface.